U.S. attorney in Jacksonville for crime conference discusses clemency, drugs, fraud, terrorists and protecting children

The U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida knows about Jacksonville’s reign as Florida’s murder capital and could soon direct federal resources at local criminal organizations.

A. Lee Bentley III said federal agents have had success using the Racketeer Influenced and Criminal Organizations Act (commonly called RICO) in other jurisdictions and he’s looking at federal authorities using it here.

Bentley, who is in Jacksonville for a national conference on Preventing Crime in the Black Community, spoke about a number of issues with the Times-Union ranging from the Department of Justice’s Smart on Crime initiative to his office’s top priorities.

The Middle District of Florida encompasses three of the state’s largest cities, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville. With a budget of about $20 million, Bentley said Smart on Crime allows the U.S. Attorney’s Office to focus on what it does best — complex, multi-jurisdictional criminal acts.

Smart on Crime recognizes that it isn’t possible to prosecute crime away and looks at preventive measures as it bolsters re-entry efforts for individuals released from prison.

The initiative also reduces the Department of Justice’s focus on low-level, non-violent drug offenses. In April the department announced a clemency initiative that targets prisoners already serving long sentences for those types of crimes.

Bentley said some inmates are serving life sentences for possession of as little as 50 grams of crack cocaine. Many of these sentences came during the crack epidemic of the late 1980s and early ‘90s, he said.

In 2010 the United States spent about $80 billion on jails and prisons, Attorney General Eric Holder said last year. There’s no other country that has more people locked up — 2.2 million — than the United States, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies.

Bentley said the clemency initiative is still in its infancy, and there is a strict criteria to determine who qualifies.

The criteria includes that applicants have served at least 10 years of their sentence, behaved while incarcerated, aren’t violent and were never part of a criminal organization, gang or cartel.

Historically, the Middle District of Florida hasn’t focused on low-level, non-violent drug crime, Bentley said. “We simply won’t have too many cases affected by this initiative,” he said.

The total number of possible applicants isn’t yet available, he said.

The Department of Justice has four priorities: Protect Americans from national security threats, prosecute violent criminals, investigate financial fraud and protect the most vulnerable citizens.

Bentley will discuss child exploitation efforts and its missing children campaign in Jacksonville Friday as part of National Missing Children’s Day. Bentley, who has a 14-year-old son, said parents should spend time with their children and educate them on the dangers of the Internet.

“All of us with children need to do that,” he said.

Bentley was appointed as acting U.S. attorney in July. That designation expired Sunday, but he was reappointed Monday and will continue to serve until President Barack Obama nominates a new U.S. attorney and Congress confirms that nomination. Bentley is among the finalists, as is Jacksonville lawyer Curry Gary Pajcic.

Bentley said many don’t know the U.S. Attorney’s Office also handles civil cases with about 20 percent of the office’s lawyers involved in civil litigation, he said.

Last year the Affirmative Civil Enforcement program in the Middle District collected $366 million from successful lawsuits. The program targets government fraud, companies that pollute and provide defective goods or worthless services.

“We may have a better year this year than last year,” he said.

Still, the main priority of federal prosecutors is to put away dangerous threats to the United States. He touted the recent guilty plea of Jacksonville’s Shelton Bell. The 20-year-old man left America to participate in an overseas holy war, according to federal prosecutors. Bell pleaded guilty to supporting terrorists in March and faces a 15-year prison sentence.

Bentley called it a nationwide problem as Americans continue to travel overseas for training by terrorists. He said they go overseas, become radicalized and learn about weapons and explosives and then return. He called it the Department of Justice’s top priority.

He said he understands tough prosecution of crime isn’t the sole solution to America’s crime problem.

“The best way to reduce crime is through strong public education and programs for children,” Bentley said.

Perhaps U.S. Attorney Bentley or some of his colleagues could spend a bit of time looking into the redistricting scandal, and the equally scandalous efforts to covering up, including the activities of "operatives" and consultants.

It is a shame that the late U.S. Attorney Bob Merkle is not around to dig into this the way that he did so many other Florida political issues.